The present invention relates generally recovery winch systems and, more particularly, to a remote-controllable recovery winch/stabilizer system that, during a recovery operation, provides for even feed of the winch cable onto the winch drum preventing jamming of the cable and means to stabilize the recovery vehicle.
The background information discussed below is presented to better illustrate the novelty and usefulness of the present invention. This background information is not admitted prior art.
Winches long have been used for moving large and heavy objects. Typically, when using a winch, one end of a long wire rope (a winch cable) is securely attached to the object, such as a vehicle, to be retrieved while the other end of the cable is attached to and wound about a winch drum. In this manner, a winch is used to lift and/or to move objects that would be too difficult to move or lift manually. In general, a winch typically includes a high torque motor for rotating the winch drum to wind the cable. This motor can be, for example, a hydraulic motor or an electric motor with high torque gear reduction. Once the cable is attached, for example, to the vehicle to be recovered, the motor is used to turn the winch drum to wind the attached cable about the drum. This creates a tension in the cable that is used to pull and/or lift the vehicle.